Sikka, Pilleriin

University of Skövde, School of Bioscience. University of Skövde, The Systems Biology Research Centre. Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Finland. (Kognitiv neurovetenskap och filosofi, Cognitive Neuroscience and Philosophy)ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1926-6138

Revonsuo, Antti

University of Skövde, School of Bioscience. University of Skövde, The Systems Biology Research Centre. University of Turku, Finland. (Kognitiv neurovetenskap och filosofi, Cognitive Neuroscience and Philosophy)ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2771-1588

Valli, Katja

Abstract [en]

Emotions are central in dreams, specifically in rapid eye movement sleep dreams. Despite a wealth of research on the emotional content of dreams, there is little consensus about the overall emotionality and predominant valence of dreams or about the prevailing specific emotions in dreams. Previous contradictory findings are arguably due to unresolved methodological issues. However, studies that have directly investigated these methodological issues are scarce. In this presentation three studies that investigated the effect of study methodology on the frequency, valence and phenomenological content of dream emotions are discussed. The studies demonstrate that the use of different methods for rating dream emotions (participants who experience the dream vs external judges who analysed the respective dream report) and for collecting dream reports (home vs laboratory setting) leads to very different results and conclusions about the emotional content of dreams. As such, these studies highlight the importance of carefully considering study methodology when conducting and interpreting dream (emotional) content studies.